Nick

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪk

Full definition of nick

Noun

1. A small cut in a surface
2. (now rare) A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.20:Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke, and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.
• Howellto cut it off in the very nick
3. (cricket) a small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch
4. Short for nicknamea user's reserved nick on an IRC network
5. (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.
6. (UK, slang) Condition.The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.
7. (British, slang) A police station or prison.He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick to be charged. (police station)He's just been released from Shadwell nick after doing ten years for attempted murder. (prison)
8. (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.
9. (archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.
• 1879, Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (page 201)...imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks, river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.
10. (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.

Derived terms

• in the nick of time

Verb

1. (transitive) To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.I nicked myself while I was shaving.
• PriorAnd thence proceed to nicking sashes.
• ShakespeareThe itch of his affection should not then
  Have nicked his captainship.
2. To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
• CamdenWords nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.
3. To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
• L'EstrangeThe just season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved.
4. (transitive, slang) To steal.Someone's nicked my bike!
5. (transitive, British, slang) To arrest.The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.
6. (transitive, cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection
7. (obsolete) To nickname; to style.For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me. — Ford.
8. To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.
• 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.
9. To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make him carry it higher).